Margaret Thatcher Projects is excited to present Drawing Through: France & Poland, a series of large-scale paintings and a selected group of works on paper by Tad Mike in what will be his debut solo exhibition at the gallery.

Begun in 2009, Drawing Through is a sensitively wrought series that implores us to engage our consciousness, empathy and appreciation for the natural world through Mike’s favored plein air method. Executed during the artist’s trips to small villages in France and Poland, Mike calls attention to the ever-changing relationship between people and nature by employing unorthodox materials in each piece. Local vegetation, rocks and other organic objects become tools to capture fleeting moments of time and memory of the site-specific locations the artist selects during his travels.

Albeit some consistencies in material such as walnut ink, watercolor and paper or canvas, Mike’s other mediums constantly vary in response to the different environments in which he situates himself. Needles of a Hemlock tree, particular stones, moss and grass plucked from the ground all become unique mark-making tools that symbolically inscribe the fingerprints and essence of the landscapes he traverses.